By Dr. Petrus Raulino
Antidepressants and Covid-19
A small clinical trial, with still preliminary results, conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), compared the antidepressant Fluvoxamine with placebo in 152 adult outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19.
Preliminary results
After 15 days, none of the patients who received Fluvoxamine showed any clinical deterioration, while 6 patients who received the placebo did.
Of these six, four were hospitalized for periods ranging from 4 to 21 days.
One patient who received placebo required mechanical ventilation.
These findings are still restricted to a study with a small sample, so they cannot serve as a basis for recommending the use of Fluvoxamine for COVID-19.
Why is that? Because it could simply be a statistical artifact.
This is why multicenter studies with larger samples and rigorous methodology are needed.
It is worth remembering that Fluvoxamine is a special control drug and should only be prescribed at the doctor's discretion for indications other than COVID-19.
Fluvoxamine and cytokine production
But the research finding is relevant.
The hypothesis still to be tested in further studies is whether Fluvoxamine can change the clinical outcome and reduce the production of cytokines, which have been associated with the potentially fatal "cytokine storms" that occur in severe cases of COVID-19.
The study's findings may illustrate how complex therapeutic targets in research can be.
There are many variables that are not completely known, but new findings and answers must be sought.
These findings should not be treated as grounds for doctors to recommend Fluvoxamine as an effective measure against COVID-19, but rather as an encouraging indicator for future research.
We're watching.
References
Lenze, E. J., Mattar, C., Zorumski, C. F., Stevens, A., Schweiger, J., Nicol, G. E., ... & Reiersen, A. M. (2020). Fluvoxamine vs placebo and clinical deterioration in outpatients with symptomatic COVID-19: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 324(22), 2292-2300.
